Is D the Answer to the One vs. Two Language High ,Performance Computing Dilemma?

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling]

On 08/12/2013 09:12 AM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> I'm seeing a lot of focus here on the printed page. People can do
> whatever the heck they want when they go print handouts and such.
> But that doesn't mean they have to, or should, shoehorn their
> electronic publications into a form that's poorly suited for
> electronic use.

One thing that's worth remembering is that printing out copies for reading and
thinking purposes is still quite important -- there's a great benefit in
disconnecting from screen, from e-reader, from any electronic devices, and
reading, scribbling and thinking with just you, a printed copy and some note paper.

Having well-laid-out print copies makes that process much, _much_ nicer.  If I
compare the not-so-nice 2-column conference proceedings with a well-prepared
journal article, there's no comparison.

Typography still matters a great deal for effective research communication.

> Didn't someone here say not too long ago that most of those
> publications are just written in latex anyway? If that's the case, then
> I really don't see any issue with having separate formats for print
> handouts vs electronic distribution (But then I'm not versed in latex, so maybe I'm missing something).

Depends on the discipline.  Some (e.g. physics) are pretty wedded to LaTeX.
Others are almost all based around Word.  Different branches of computer science
seem to favour one or the other -- ACM and IEEE conference proceedings have
templates in both, and the author is asked to generate the PDF copy from
whichever they use, and it's the PDF, and _only_ the PDF, that is used for
dissemination purposes.  In other cases (e.g. Spring Lecture Notes) the
publisher does ask for source copy and does make use of it.

Where journals are concerned, different journals handle things differently but
in my experience, these days LaTeX is not so often used as the actual formatting
mechanism.  When authors provide LaTeX source, it'll most likely be used as an
input for the typesetter's internal workflow, most often using InDesign, with
XML, HTML and PDF copies being exported.

There are some physics journals which were almost certainly using LaTeX as their
formatting mechanism some years ago, but have now switched to that kind of
alternative workflow.  You can tell because the copyediting stage introduces
typos that are only explicable if the submitted LaTeX source has been imported
into something like Word and copyedited there.